Online Social Networking: What It Really Means to Employee Recruitment

Consider the number of unique visitors to the two top social networking sites, MySpace and Facebook. For the month of November, MySpace logged nearly 57.4 million unique users, and Facebook had almost 22 million unique visitors, according to Nielsen Online, which measures and analyzes website traffic.

But the million dollar question is do online social networks really further employee recruitment efforts?

Targeting candidates

To date, organizations have found the most value in using social networking sites as sources of candidate information. ìRight now theyíre furthering the research you can do. Employers can learn more by doing searches,î says Rich Milgram, Founder and CEO of Beyond.com, a network of more than 15,000 career sites.

To be sure, there are tales of candidates who have been disqualified because of content posted at social networking sites. Nevertheless, Milgram points to the catch-22 of the situation: Itís essentially information many corporations shouldnít be looking at, he says, citing OFCCP regulations related to Internet applicants, which pertain to U.S. government contractors and subcontractors.

As a result, Milgram sees online social networking from a different vantage point. ìItís basically a catalyst. Itís a great place to generate traffic from,î he says.

The advantage of online social networks, according to Milgram, is that they are frequented by people who are Internet savvy, and people who are willing to give out information, including their resumes. ìIn some ways, those are the customers of job boards,î he says.

Yet, he also sees a downside. ìMost of the social networks arenít targeted in any fashion. Itís more of a shotgun approach,î Milgram says, indicating that, as a result, professional networks are currently far better for targeting quality candidates.

Milgram doesnít rule out social networks as recruitment resources. Beyond.com has an arrangement where its job postings show up on Friendster. But, despite the fact that the traffic is what he calls decent, Milgram says Beyond.com is still experimenting with the process and analyzing the value to employers.

The primary issue is candidate quality; specifically, whether the candidates employers seek are frequenting social networking sites. But targeting is also a factor; assuming appropriate candidates are at the sites, the issue becomes how to reach out to them.

Job boards have drilled down to the niche level, and Milgramís expectation is that social networking sites will evolve in a similar fashion. Improving exposure and quality of exposure makes sense not only from the standpoint of advertisers on the sites but also from the standpoint of users, he says.

Sharing jobs

Julie Craft, Vice President of the Publisher Network for Simply Hired, the largest search engine for jobs, agrees that social networking sites havenít yet delivered on their full potential as far as employee recruitment, but she points out that online social networking hasnít really been around that long. For the most part, 2006 was about assessing what these sites could deliver, she says, indicating that 2007, particularly the second half, was pivotal, and that 2008 will see some major advancements.

Among the changes Craft has seen recently is an increase in the number of employers going to MySpace and setting up recruiting pages.

Simply Hired has a relationship with the site. In June 2006, it launched MySpace Jobs, which Craft says has been a success.

MySpace members can search for jobs while at the site, and some rely on this method. But a key element of the arrangement, one that is no doubt driving success, is that Simply Hired provides all MySpace members with targeted jobs that appear as job widgets on their individual MySpace pages.

By putting appropriate jobs in front of MySpace users, Simply Hired aims to pique their interest. The strategy seems to be working.

ìThe click-throughs have grown dramatically,î Craft says. ìAnd we arenít promoting it.î

She attributes interest in part to curiosity. A job in a personís geographical area, thatís a fit from a career standpoint, is difficult to ignore when itís right there on the page, she says. And it doesnít matter whether the person is actively seeking a job.

ìThe power of the social network is to attract the passive candidate,î says Craft.

Leveraging technology

Simply Hired is also tapping into the Facebook community. In 2007, it launched Workiní It, an application on Facebook that allows members to build mini-resumes and/or highlight accomplishments.

The mini-resume aspect of the two-part tool allows people to share their education, work experience, and skills in an abbreviated format for networking purposes. Using Workiní It, members can also give gold stars, or recommendations, to other people on Facebook. The ìgold starî feature allows people to collect their kudos from managers, colleagues, and others and display them all on one page. The page of gold stars can be printed and brought to an interview, says Craft, or it can be used as part of a job-search portfolio.

As with its MySpace arrangement, Simply Hired is not promoting the Facebook application. Even so, Workiní It boasts approximately 800 active daily users. ìIt has grown exponentially, so this is all viral,î Craft says.

If there is such interest, why arenít more organizations doing more with social networking sites?

Craft foresees an increase in the number of employers that use online social networks for recruitment. ìI think the education needs to continue, and it will continue,î she says.

Employers, and HR specifically, are not that technologically savvy, she explains; applications have to get easier to understand so that itís a no-brainer to invest a slice of recruiting dollars in social networking. Simply Hired expects 2008 to be the year when this change occurs.

But what about the issue of candidate quality? Craft finds that in the past year thereís been a shift in social network users, and itís largely a matter of educating employers. ìI think theyíd be surprised that these are executives,î she says.

In fact, Craft believes social networking sites may actually offer more potential than professional networks. ìPeople are finding value. Itís a less threatening, more relaxed environment. You can see the whole person, and you can see them in a different light,î she says.

According to Craft, the personal aspect of social networking fits with todayís job environment, where work and lifestyle go hand-in-hand.

ìWe believe and we know that social networking is a great place for a job seeker, and for employers to recruit,î she says.

Paula Santonocito is a business journalist specializing in employment issues. She is the author of nearly 1,000 articles on a wide range of topics, including online recruitment, which she has covered since the early days of Web-based employment advertising and candidate sourcing. In addition to serving as features editor of Online Recruitment Magazineís North American edition, she is AIRS News editor, overseeing news content for the global recruitment training and technology solutions company at www.airsdirectory.com. Articles by Paula Santonocito are featured in many global and domestic publications and information outlets, including HRWire, a publication to which she regularly contributes. She can be reached at psantonocito@yahoo.com.